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New Mac Games: The '99 Drool List Randy: Well, Gary, here we are heading to the last Spring of the twentieth century and as gamers, we have had a blast this year. Gary: So far… (Grating sounds from the workbench in Gary's corner of the cave) Randy: Yes, we have had the great privilege of playing some of the hottest titles out for the Macintosh this year and last. We have talked at length about how cool Unreal is, how totally bad ass Dark Vengeance is, how fun Carmageddon is… (More grating sounds from Gary's corner.) We played on G3 processors for the first time. Experienced VooDoo for the first time. Gary: Tried the Aborigine feather-mating dance for the first time. (See last week's column.) (More grating.) Randy: The wha…? Gary: Did I just say that last part out loud? (Grate, grate...) Randy: Uh, yeah, freakshow! And what the hell are you doing over there with all the grating sounds? Gary: I'm making a great new game. Well, I'm really just upgrading an old favorite. I snagged the rubber mallet from Chucky Cheese's Wack-a-Mole game for my new and greatly improved version. Randy: Wow, you really ground that thing to a point. That could punch a hole in the side of a 77' Impala. Gary: Exactly! The perfect tool for my new game…"Spindle-a-Mole"! Randy: Yikes! (Please don't let the ASPCA read this, please don't let the ASPCA read this….) Bad game idea, but good segue into today's topic. New Mac games coming out for the second half of 1999. Gary: At least I get half credit for the segue, right? Randy: Sure, just put that thing away until Thunder Dome, okay? Gary: Well, maybe Randy isn't so hip to my new game but I think we both agree there are some spectacular new titles slated to be released for the Mac this year. And some of them are even starting to ship this week! Randy: Oh, yeah! A big one that just came out of the gate this week is the long awaited STARSHIP TITANIC from sci-fi comedy favorite Douglas Adams. While this title has been available for a short while already for PC's it has finally made it home to the Mac. (Where it was originally developed in the first place!) Gary: Already STARSHIP TITANIC has earned a coveted Codie award for best adventure game of 1999. This game promises to rival the beauty and creative visions of such great titles as Riven and Myst. Adventure genre fans are advised to run, not walk, to your nearest online or mail order source and get STARSHIP TITANIC. I'll even throw in a sample of my Spindle-a-Mole game, including five live moles! Randy: Dude! Icksnay on the olemay ashingsmay. Uh,… and let's not forget Carmageddon II, one of our all time favorites. You can place your orders directly with SCI right now. However there is some extra cost for overseas shipping. But until they get a US distributor, the cost is worth it. Gary: And if you haven't played Electronic Arts newest Mac release Future Cop L.A.P.D. you are missing some serious fun. This is also an important title for the Macintosh and Electronic Arts because it is the first Mac game they have released in years. How well this title sells will help shape EA's decisions about future Mac releases of their other games. Gamers need to get this one. And besides it's a great (and very addictive) action game. Randy: One of the biggest boons for Mac gamers this year was Connectix's release of Virtual Game Station. With a single release Connectix grew the Mac game software title list by thousands! Gary: Adding the ability to play PlayStation titles on your Mac is wicked cool. This is a must have for all gamers. While it doesn't work with all PlayStation titles, it has worked with everyone we have tried. Including such great titles as Metal Gear Solid and Nightmare Creatures. Hats off to Connectix! Randy and Gary: WE'RE NOT WORTHY! Randy: Bungie of course has another major winner with the release of Myth II: Soulblighter. And Altor Systems new adventure title Nightfall blurs the line between first-person shooter and adventure even further with it's new 3D realtime adventure engine. And for extra coolness, they even include a complete tool pack of editors for budding game makers who want to use their engine. (See next week's column for our review of this title.) Gary: But these games have all been in the news for a while. What is on the horizon for the Mac gaming elite? What new titles are lurking out there? What companies are on the verge of announcing they are releasing a Mac version of their newest killer game? Why am I only speaking in questions? Can I form a sentence without asking a question? Who knows? Randy: What exactly did that tutu and feather experience do to your brain last week? Gary: Did he ask another question? Randy: Doh! Anyhoo, in response to your strange and fragmented style of speech Gary, I answer…Bigger, badder games than any mortal has ever seen before are coming to a Mac near you. Gary: Oh yes! To start with, Blizzard Entertainment has finally gone gold master with the much ballyhooed Starcraft. While we are not much into real-time management sims, this game is pretty impressive. Randy: For you first-person shooter fans, Quake III has been promised by the man himself, John Carmack of Id Software. Gary: Red Storm's hot new title Rainbow Six has officially been announced for the Macintosh. The release isn't scheduled until the second quarter of '99, but it will include a bonus mission not available on the PC version. Randy: But, Gary, you know we haven't made a prediction in a while. I think I'm going to go out on a limb here and mention some titles that have not made firm commitments to the Macintosh, ...yet. Some of these titles are being seriously considered for porting, while some are just so spectacular we thought they were worth mentioning. We hope to start a groundswell of support here for these titles and hope our readers will let their voices be heard by the developers of these games. (In a polite and intelligent way.) Gary: That's right. Randy: I was talking to you. Gary: That's right. Randy: Logicware, the beloved porters of Quake II, Heretic II and Jazz Jackrabbit 2 has announced they will be releasing a port of Fox Interactive's Alien vs. Predator. Watch for it this summer. This game is built in the Unreal engine and as you might suspect it looks incredible. Talk about your ultimate eliminator match. Gary: The future looks bright for sci-fi fans. Randy: Is that a joke? Gary: No, I was going to continue, because Asian game makers WPX are coming out with a schweet extra extraterrestrials adventure called Experience. This game looks truly stunning. With a custom engine developed in house this game renders smooth organic entities that look like they came straight out of Electric Image. While the game is being rendered and developed on Macs, WPX has given no firm commitment to a Mac version. They acknowledge that it will most likely be the decision of the publisher whether a Mac version is created. Being Mac users themselves WPX has highest hopes they will make it to all platforms and consoles. Randy: So do we. This is one I am drooling for. Gary: On my drool list I have a new title in development called Drakan from Surreal. This high flying action/adventure drops you in a beautiful Myst-like fantasy world, but in real-time. The game couples elements of adventure and role playing with action. Some battles are even fought from the back of your trusty companion. A flying dragon! Again there has been no firm commitment by Surreal to a Mac version but they are very open to input from gamers who would buy this type of title. Randy: Man, Drakan looks awesome. But I think I have one even better. The makers of the popular Alone in the Dark game series, Infogrames have a title under development called Outcast. This game uses a new technology that only a few game engines have started to exploit. The technology is called Voxles and it allows incredible amounts of detail in on the fly rendered worlds. It is not based on maps as we know them today so there is no loading between levels and the game play is fast and super responsive. Unfortunately, it's also a real resource hog too. However this game deserves all the hardware you can throw at it. From the motion captured movements of the characters to the super slick AI this game is going to break some serious boundaries in modern gaming. Gary: Once again Infogrames has made no mention of a Mac version of this game. In fact, their own web site makes no mention of Outcast because it is so early in it's development. However, we have a link to a great interview with Fedrick Barlay, the creator of Outcast. This interview, done by the kids over at the All Games Network and it shows tons of footage of the game play. And believe us, it rocks! (Check out the 2/23/99 Outcast interview in Real Audio from the Game Time archives.) Randy: Hey let's get busy on some Nightfall for next week's review. Gary: Last one into the pyramid is a rotten sarcophagous! |